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Galley Tables

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There was a
lot of trash talk at Thursday night’s Kodiak Island Borough Assembly meeting.
Two new faces were added to the Solid Waste Advisory Board, and Threshold has a
new contract to provide recycling services to the borough. Jay Barrett has
more.

The two new
faces on the Solid Waste Advisory Board are familiar faces in Kodiak. Cindy
Harrington and Laurie Murdock were appointed by Mayor Jerome Selby to the pair
of openings, which were confirmed by the assembly.

Harrington,
who was appointed to an individual seat on the board, works in her family’s
commercial fishing operation and until recently was a program director at the
University of Alaska. She says her interest in the SWAB came from her
involvement with Sustainable Kodiak. Her term on the SWAB will expire at the
end of 2010.

Murdock was
appointed to a seat reserved for a private business, and will expire at the end
of 2009. She and her husband own Alpha Appliance Repair, that sells refurbished
home appliances, which she described as a form of recycling. Murdock currently
works as the executive assistant for Assemblywoman Pat Branson at Senior
Citizens of Kodiak.

The
contract with Threshold Services will be for about 115-thousand dollars, but is
only for six months, as explained by Engineering and Facilities Director Woody
Koning:

--(Trash 144
sec“…
increase in tonnage that is diverted from the landfill.”)

Threshold
Executive Director Rick Pillans quantified for the assembly the increase in
recycling in Kodiak:

--(Trash 231
sec“…
people are reaching out and are accepting it.”)

The
assembly members universally praised Threshold, not only for recycling, but its
hiring of those with what Pillans described as “employment-barring disabilities.”
Assemblywoman Branson:

--(Trash 318
sec“…
both of those things is a real selling point.”)

With the
Bell and Associates draft solid waste plan calling for increased recycling,
Assemblyman Tom Abell hopes Threshold does not get lost in the shuffle:

--(Trash 430
sec“…
afford to buy that also.”)

Abell said
he’d like to see more recycling, which hopefully would bring with it lower
costs:

--(Trash 527
sec“…
ditch, and they will take it to recycle.”)

The
contract with Threshold is retroactive to July 1st, and is good
through the end of the year. It pays Threshold 9-thousand dollars per month for
the first 30-thousand pounds of material it processes, and 15-cents per pound
after that.